bookGirl Review: Legend (Marie Lu's Legend Series #1)

After reading Hunger Games I kept looking for the next best dystopian book. Mostly, I had become bored with the genre, so I gave up on it for a while. Then I found the Legend Series by Marie Lu.

The Cover

I love book covers and they tend to lead me in the right direction when picking a book. So, I wanted to dedicate just a couple sentences to the cover.

There’s a couple different versions of the books art cover, but the image I used above was the one that really drew me in. I love its simplicity. The artist used a simple metallic background and distressed block yellow-sand font, giving off this science fiction-primitive vibe that really caught my eye. I had just about given up the YA dystopian genre when I picked up this up.

Book One: Legend

Legend is the first book in this series, and is set in Los Angeles in the year 2130. The United States is divided into two nations, the Republic of America and the Colonies, which are at war with each other.

The book is written in two alternating narratives, one belonging to June, our heroine and prodigy, and the other belongs to Day, our hero born into property, but a notorious criminal. Both characters have no reason to meet until June’s brother is murdered and is pinned on Day.

Seeking for revenge, June is assigned to capture Day, and our plot unfolds. The book is pretty fast paced, loaded with action, conspiracies, plagues and a touch of romance. Marie takes her time with the world she’s created, which is the strongest asset with the Legend Series. Here’s the bad, the good, and the ugly truth (my rating).

The Bad

I had one major issue with this story, the age of the characters. June and Day are supposed fifteen-year-old kids with completely unbelievable roles. June, is a military prodigy given the authority to hunt down Day, the capitals most dangerous criminal? Marie Lu, what were you thinking? I would believe maybe 18 or 20 years old.

Wasn’t quite sure why she went with such a young age, maybe she wanted to avoid overly romanticizing the chemistry between the characters. What ever her reason, this was an easy flaw to get over, I just changed their ages in my mind.

The Good

Marie Lu just knows how to describe the world she’s created. She’s build a pretty good story that is relevant with climate change, dystopian wars and division of societal class – “The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer,” one of my favorite lines from Bulworth (1998)! Throughout Legend I was able to see Day’s L.A. slums in my mind, as well as the wealthy world June lives in.

I enjoyed the constant action, the twists, and was pleasantly happy with the subtle romance tones between the characters. It wasn’t overwhelming nor underwhelming, a nice change from other YA books in general.

Overall, it was different enough to really want to share it with my other YA dystopian sisters out there. It was an easy and quick read, and hope you add it to your e-reader queue.

More Like This

Recent Posts by ConfessionGirl

Comments

In order to comment on BlogHer.com, you'll need to be logged in. You'll be given the option to log in or create an account when you publish your comment. If you do not log in or create an account, your comment will not be displayed.